Passing Fancies

I spent the last two days going through an audit of our quality systems. During audits it sometimes takes a lot of effort not to see every comment as criticism, but there was one thing the auditor said that really rankled: She called one of our programs the "flavor of the month," meaning we'd done it when it was new and popular but weren't committed to it. In effect, she called it a fad. My grandma had an older term for the same thing: she would have called it a passing fancy.

Because the audit is so fresh, it was the first thing I thought of when I read 1 John 2:15-17: "Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world–the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does–comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever."

All those glittery, flashy, fleshy temptations the world flaunts are just passing fancies, doomed to extinction. My cravings and lusts, the urge I sometimes have to talk myself up - those are worldly things, and there will come a time when I won't care about them anymore, and neither will anyone else. 

When that day comes, if the world is what I've invested myself in, if the world is what has my heart, then I'll be left with nothing when it all passes away. On the other hand, if I've pursued God's will, I'll live forever. When you put it that way, it's a no-brainer.